I'm afraid "should be fast enough" is the problem. Because that column is not indexed it's already slow - as shown by my analysis using MS Query Analyzer. The tools are clearly telling me that currently the SQL has to do a scan not a seek of the data - i.e. it has to read every country entry in the table, rather than using an index to seek to the required locations.

I definitely need to change something at the database layer - it is a problem of data indexing.

(I did try to answer this a day ago - but the forum was broken!)

Thanks again.

Yes - I will need to add something - and because the propertyValue column is so big, it can't be just as simple a change as a simple index - SQLS can't index the current column.

I'll keep looking at the ideas I already posted - but am happy to consider others if anyone has an idea :)